This program is designed to encourage the nearly 650,000 small businesses in New South Wales that do not pay payroll tax to hire new employees and expand their business.

Grant amount of $2,000 is available for full time employees (FTE). In the case of part time or casual employees, the grant amount will be pro-rated based on FTE hours of employment. The grant is a one off payment per new position and is paid when a claim is made on the 12 month anniversary of when the position was created.

Customer may have been eligible for the Small Business Grant (SBG) however before the first anniversary of the commencement of the job, the customer becomes liable for payroll tax. This means the customer is no longer eligible for the SBG and may also not be eligible for the Jobs Action Plan rebate (JAP) because they did not register that new job for the JAP within the 90 days of commencement (as required by JAP revenue ruling JAP 001).

The OSR will accept applications for the JAP in situations as described above, provided the applicant originally registered for the SBG and all other eligibility criteria for the SBG and JAP are met, for example an increase in FTE. The customer will also have to register for payroll tax when they become liable or before the first anniversary of the new employee commencing.

As announced in the 2015-16 NSW Budget, the government has committed a total funding pool of $27 million over three years from 2016-17 to 2018-19 ($9 million per year) for this program.

Who Can Apply

Eligible applicants include businesses that must:
- Have an active ABN.
- Not have a payroll tax liability, during the 12 month employment period of a new person as at 30 June of the financial year.

Eligible employments include those that meet the following conditions:
- A person is employed in a position that is a new job.
- The employment commences on or after 1 July 2015 and before 1 July 2019.
- The employment is maintained for a period of 12 months.
- The number of full-time equivalent (FTE) employees, prior to creating a new position must increase and be maintained over a 12 month period.
- The services of the employee are performed wholly or mainly in NSW.